and the beauty of that partial solution to the fiscal cliff is that everyone supports it, everyone, democrat and republican supports extending those tax cuts for the middle class, extending them for 98% of the american people and 97% of the small businesses. so as you heard the president say on friday, and as i know you'll hear him say when he meets with you tomorrow, you know, this is a step that the white house -- i mean that washington can take that would create certainty for almost all americans, certainly for almost all small businesses. would help alleviate some of the potential damage that could be caused by the fiscal cliff and would enable us to move forward to address the many other issues that we have that confront us. it would be an excellent way to demonstrate to the american public that after an election where these issues were central to the debate, that washington can move forward and that we can compromise. >> given the -- everything that is going on with petraeus and weland allen is the president going to ask the national security team sort of, hey, guys i know you want to